Paul McCartney: The Beatles' Other Drummer

By Robert L. Doerschuk

Originally published in the October 2005 issue of DRUM! Magazine

Paul McCartney used to play bass with a band called The Beatles. In
fact, he played so much bass with them that he had to weather years of
fame and glamour, followed by the group’s crash-and-burn breakup,
before he could get around to playing drums on his own solo albums,
beginning with McCartney in 1970 and leading to this year’s Chaos And
Creation In The Back Yard. In fact, though, Sir Paul’s stick-swinging
adventures began long ago, in the sleazy German clubs where the
pre-Fab 4 got their act together.

DRUM!:When did you first play drums?McCartney: My first recollection is in Hamburg. You’d get behind the
kit to try and show the drummer what you wanted. That gradually grew
to messing around on other people’s kits, which were lying around
because there were a lot of groups playing in the places we played.
You picked up the simplest beats very naturally. I remember one
evening when Tony Sheridan’s drummer didn’t show up, so Tony said,
“Come on, man, sit in!” I said, “No way! I can’t do this.” And he
said, “Yeah, you can.” So I did it and then I was thinking, “Well!
I’ve actually done a professional drumming gig!” Later, with The
Beatles, there was a period where John, George, and I operated as a
trio and picked up little bits of work. I remember playing in an
illegal club in somebody’s basement on Upper Parliament Street in
Liverpool’s Caribbean Quarter. One day this guy called Lord Woodbine,
who ran the club, asked if we’d come in and accompany this stripper
called Janine. We said, “Wow! Yeah, man! There’s a job.” He even paid
us money.

DRUM!:It sounds like you would have paid him for that gig.McCartney: Exactly [laughs]. So she came in and said, “Okay, I need
you to play Ravel’s Bolero.” We said, “Oh, gee. Sorry, luv. We don’t
read music. But we’ve got ’Raunchy.’ That might do.” I had somebody’s
old drum kit, and I sat there with a broomstick between my legs, with
a microphone tied to it so I could do a bit of vocals and drum at the
same time. It was hilarious.

DRUM!:When Ringo joined the band, that must have interrupted your
emerging career on drums.McCartney: Yeah, I was completely redundant. We loved Ringo so much.
He was our favorite drummer in Liverpool, and when he joined the band,
it was an explosion: Every song sounded new and fresh. He could pass
what we felt was the true test for drummers, which was to be able to
play “What’d I Say” — the cymbal work and the toms.

DRUM!:Ringo adjusted from one section of the song to the next, rather
than just lay down a beat. That influence is evident in your drumming
on the new album.McCartney: That’s one thing about great drummers: They actually listen
to the song, so they can allow the vocalist space. Then when you get
to the end of a phrase, they make a comment: [sings], “Eight days a
week … ba-dap-a-doo bop.” But on Chaos that also has to do with Nigel
Godrich, who is a thinking producer. Your natural inclination is to go
“one, two, three, four, bang,” and you’re in with the drums. But Nigel
would say, “You know, this song has a nice acoustic opening. Let’s let
it ride.” We did that on “Friends To Go,” and then on the second verse
I came in with just the bass drum. It didn’t need anything more than
that.

DRUM!:You also pare your drum part down on a number of songs, such as
“Too Much Rain” and “This Never Happened Before,” or take them out
entirely as part of a diminuendo.McCartney: I was always trying to do that in the ’70s, but my
producers would say, “Just play the tambourine through the whole track
and we’ll work it out later.” I’d go [dubiously], “Uh, okay …” And
inevitably it would stay through the whole track. You’d have this
record full of everything from A to Z; none of the instruments ever
stopped. And that was boring. I reminded Nigel — and myself — that on
Beatles records you’d have a tambourine for a verse, then it would
stop and a snare or something would take over. I was thinking of that
as we were working on “Too Much Rain.” I said, “You know, when I was
writing this on solo acoustic, where the lyrics are like, ’It’s not
right in one life, too much rain,’ that meant something. And now we’ve
got boom, bing, bang going over it. It doesn’t mean as much, so can we
knock that out and build back up again?” That was the way to go.

DRUM!:As strong as you are on bass, keyboards, guitar, and as a
singer and writer, is it frustrating to play your drum parts at a more
limited level?McCartney: That never intimidates me, though it probably should. I
just have so much enthusiasm when I do things that I don’t even
consider it. I’m lucky, because some people would wrack themselves
with doubt, but when I came to this project I was like, “Man, let’s
just have a bit of fun!” It didn’t occur to me that I was some idiot
jumping on the kit. I know that a lot of drummers can play rings
around me, but as long as I keep it simple and don’t get too flash, I
can play with a steady, swampy feel, and that’ll do the job.